A screenshot from a video shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a café in Gaza City, with smoke rising and debris scattered. Photo: Quds News Network.
Gaza (QNN)- A Hamas official has confirmed that the Israeli attack on a café on Tuesday targeted unarmed members of the movement who were discussing disarmament as part of US President Donald Trump’s plan to implement the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, which Israel has firmly rejected. The attack on the crowded café killed seven Palestinians, including a child.
On Wednesday, Alaraby TV reported, citing a Hamas official, that the targeted group was unarmed and had gathered for a meeting as part of the movement’s preparations for disarmament under Trump’s plan.
An Israeli drone attack on a cafe in the port area west of Gaza City on Tuesday killed at least seven Palestinians, including a child, and left one body so mutilated that health workers could not identify the victim, according to Palestinian Health officials. The hospital said one victim appeared to have taken a direct missile hit, with the body shredded beyond recognition. Health officials said the intensity of the strike pushed a number of the injured and dead into the sea, meaning the real number of casualties may be higher.
Mohammed Alghoul, an eyewitness to the event, told AFP that “Israeli warplanes fired two missiles at the ‘Sweet and Bitter’ cafe on the fishermen’s port west of Gaza City”. The Israeli military claimed that they carried out a “precise aerial strike” against “several Hamas commanders” in the Shati area, west of Gaza City who “were planning attacks against Israeli forces operating in the Strip”, adding that “steps were taken to mitigate harm to civilians”. They did not comment on the child who was killed, or provide evidence to substantiate their allegations against those targeted.
Following the attack, Hamas said in a statement that the strike, which they described as a “massacre”, demonstrates Israel’s “disregard” for Trump’s calls to maintain the “ceasefire” deal, calling on mediators to pressure Israel “to commit to the ceasefire deal” and the peace roadmap already agreed upon.
The Director-General of Gaza’s Government Media Office, Ismail Al-Thawabta, said Israel continues to wage its “bloody war” and commit grave violations against civilians in the Gaza Strip, stressing that Tuesday’s “heinous massacre” constitutes clear evidence of Israel’s intent to violate the ceasefire agreement and continue its genocidal campaign.
At least one Palestinian was killed and multiple others were injuried after Israeli occupation aircraft target a cafe in Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/yA87IuYTZ7
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 18, 2026
The timing of the attack makes the claim more striking still. For the past two days, US officials have publicly pressed Israel to justify its strikes by pointing to specific, imminent threats and to minimize the killing of Palestinians in Gaza. US envoy Jared Kushner said only this week that Washington would not restrict Israel’s right to defend itself against what it deems imminent threats. Israel appears to have simply adopted that language, labeling a strike on a seaside café full of civilians as the elimination of a threat, in what looks like an attempt to fit its continued killing into the formula its American backers have handed it.
The result is a killing that lays bare the hollowness of both the ceasefire and the US posture. Only hours after Kushner emerged from meetings with Netanyahu to signal American support for Israel to continue the attacks in Gaza, Israel had bombed a civilian cafe by the sea and reached for the very “imminent threat” justification Washington provided.
Moreover, an Israeli airstrike targeting a police center in Gaza City on Wednesday killed at least ten Palestinians, including police officers and personnel, with some victims torn to pieces. The attack came as Israel continues to target the Palestinian police force across the war-ravaged enclave to create chaos and undermine public security.
The aftermath of an Israeli airstrike near the municipal park in Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/2d7YH981hz
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) August 19, 2026
Following the attack, the Israeli military claimed, without providing evidence as always, that it targeted Hamas leaders. Hamas, however, slammed the attack. In a statement, the movement said the “horrific massacre carried out by the Israeli occupation forces.. constitutes a new Israeli war crime and demonstrates the Netanyahu government’s continued determination to evade its obligations and effectively refuse to implement the ceasefire agreement and advance its remaining phases.”
Hamas also confirmed that the Israeli claims that the attack targeted resistance leaders are “entirely baseless”. “These false allegations are being used to justify its aggression and conceal its deliberate targeting of the civilian police force and unarmed civilians in the Gaza Strip.”
The timing of the massacre, it added, which “came following recent meetings and contacts with mediators and guarantors of the agreement, and.. efforts to advance implementation of the agreement and its roadmap, confirms that the Netanyahu government is deliberately undermining these efforts and dangerously pushing toward a renewed war against the Palestinian people in Gaza, rather than honoring its commitments under the agreement.”
Since the ceasefire took effect in October 2025, Israeli forces have killed 1,266 Palestinians in Gaza. Children account for 21.5 percent of the total death toll.
Apartment buildings, markets, vehicles, and cafés have continued to come under attack. In some cases, families received displacement orders only minutes before their homes were bombed, while many others received no warning at all.
United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk condemned Israel’s attacks in the Gaza Strip, saying that “the unrelenting pattern of killings” reflects Israel’s “sweeping impunity“. “Palestinians are still being killed and injured in what is left of their homes, shelters and tents of displaced families, on the streets, in vehicles, at a medical facility and a classroom,” Turk said.
“We mourn as Gaza reaches yet another tragic milestone … Thousands more people who were told the worst was over are still burying their loved ones,” said Fikr Shalltoot, Gaza director at Medical Aid for Palestinians.
Doctors Without Borders, known as MSF, said it has been “over 1,000 days since Israel’s genocide in Gaza began, and the collective punishment of Palestinians continues to this day. Amidst a so-called ceasefire, the world has normalised seeing Palestinians being maimed and killed daily in their tents, in hospitals, and on the street.” It added, “This is not a ceasefire.”
It is worth mentioning that Hamas reaffirmed its acceptance of the roadmap for the second phase of Trump’s plan, seeking a permanent ceasefire, a full Israeli withdrawal, urgent relief, and reconstruction, and told the mediators it had implemented the first phase in full while Israel escalated its attacks and openly rejected the roadmap. Yet the understandings reached with Netanyahu the next day guarantee the opposite: no full withdrawal, no unconditional reconstruction, and an explicit agreement that Israel will keep operating freely and assassinating in Gaza. When Hamas was told the plan aimed at a permanent ceasefire and an Israeli pullout, Netanyahu was assured Israel could keep its forces in place and continue the killing.
